Many people wonder does God hear their prayers. God does hear our prayers. The issue we may face is that what we pray for may not be in God’s will. It may not be His will despite how bad we desire the things we want. Years ago I was diagnosed with severe mental illness.

I was raised in the church. I knew praying was how people tried to fix their problems. I thought I could pray away my mental illness. As the years rolled on I would learn about God’s will. He has a perfect plan for our lives.

For many years I thought God failed to answer my prayers. As time went on I began to see that God did not need to answer my prayer about mental illness. The truth was it was a part of the plan. Once I realized that I began to live free and accept that chronic illnesses exist.

My illness was no different. Many believers feel mental illness is some spirit that needs to be prayed away from a person. The problem I have with that is if you can accept chronic illnesses like cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure my illness was no different.

I want people who suffer from mental illness or any illness to know that God has a plan. As it stands today research tells us that mental illnesses have no cure.

There are things that we go through that often we can’t understand or don’t make sense in our natural understanding. Though this is true God is still God. I had to learn this because, after eighteen years, I realized that God answered my prayer the way He saw fit.

While I was praying it away God was teaching me how to live with it. The years came and went. There were a few hospitalizations, but God was with me through it all.

There were times when things could have been worse than they happened in my life. A lot of the struggles I faced brought me closer to God in many ways. Some of the things I went through were also humbling experiences.

We must remember God does answer prayers. I wanted God to take away what I felt I could not handle. God knew what I did not see. I felt the load was too big. God saw that I had the strength and courage to battle mental illness and not be consumed by it.

The road became too rocky many times. There were times when I thought I wouldn’t make it. I endured sleepless nights and being misunderstood. For every trial, God showed me grace. It was not because I was perfect or did everything right. It was because that is just what God does.

My prayer life got stronger. I don’t take certain things for granted like I used to. I learned that there is nothing like family no matter what. We all get it wrong. We hurt people and people hurt us. It may be unintentional and other times we hurt others because we are hurting.

We must incorporate forgiveness as well. Forgiveness is every day. Forgiveness is also about forgiving yourself. “Then Peter came to him and said, Lord how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times? Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven (Matthew 18:21-22). Jesus was not giving forgiveness a limit He was making the point that it’s over and over.

A strong prayer life does not make troubling times stop. It does make them easier to bare. God may not answer your prayers the way you want Him to, but He still answers prayers.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God (Philippians 4:6)”.